ERA’s Top Radio Picks 2nd – 8th March 2019

Rebecca Clark28th February 2019

Welcome to this week’s recommendations for the best radio broadcasts for teaching and learning coming your way this week! There are quite a few music-focused programmes to recommend this week – but we’ve got everything from business studies to architecture.

Saturday 2nd March

Sound of Cinema
BBC Radio 3, 3pm – Recommended for… Music and Art & Design
This week, presenter Matthew Sweet looks at the secrets of perfecting a video game soundtrack, speaking to composer Stephen Baysted about his latest work.

Ramblings: Long Dresses, Cloaks and Bonnets
Radio 4, 6:07pm – Recommended for… Geography, History, and English Literature
Writer Dorothy Worsworth (yes, the sister of William) was also a pioneering walker. In fact, she and her friend Mary Barker became the first ever women to climb (and write about!) Scafell Pike. Alex Jakob-Whitworth and Clare Balding retrace her steps up the pike, with Alex and friends dressed in period clothing!

Sunday 3rd March

Words and Music
BBC Radio 3, 5:30pm – Recommended for… Music, History, and Sociology
This edition of the programme celebrates fictional and historical heroines, from Sally Bowles to Rosa Parks to Malala Yousafzai. Music from artists such as Fanny Mendelssohn and Janelle Monáe feature.

Monday 4th March

Book of the Week: Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus
BBC Radio 4, 9:45am – Recommended for… History and Architecture
This week’s Book of the Week features excerpts from Fiona McCarthy’s biography on architect Walter Gropius, who founded the Bauhaus.

The Deported
BBC Radio 4, 8pm – Recommended for… Citizenship
This programme tells the stories of three Nigerian people who were deported from the UK back to Nigeria for different reasons and the effect that this forced removal had on them.

Tuesday 5th March

The Life Scientific
BBC Radio 4, 9am – Recommended for… Physics
This week, physicist Donna Strickland talks to host Jim Al-Khalili about her Nobel Prize-winning research on lasers.

The Documentary: Where Are You Going?
BBC World Service, 1:30pm – Recommended for… Politics
This series sees presenter Catherine Carr travel to different cities across the UK to gather the public’s opinion on Brexit, almost three years after the vote.

Costing the Earth: Hit the Gas!
BBC Radio 3:30pm – Recommended for… Biology and PSHE
Ella McSweeney and Peter Hadfield discuss the properties of ammonia – some people believe it to be a harmful pollutant, and others theorise that it could be used as a new clean source of fuel for cars.

Wednesday 6th March

The New Age of Capitalism: Trillion Dollar Companies
BBC Radio 4, 8:45pm – Recommended for… Business Studies
Host David Grossman reflects on the growth of big companies such as Apple and Google, questioning whether or not the power that they wield should concern us.

Thursday 7th March

The Forum: Anaesthesia
BBC World Service, 9:05am – Biology and Medicine
I’m getting the feeling that this episode of The Forum may not be for the faint-hearted. Quentin Cooper talks to his guests about how anaesthesia works as well as discussing some of the stories in which people have claimed to have woken up before they were supposed to.

Friday 8th March

Remorse: a Sorry Story
BBC Radio 4, 11am – Recommended for… Law
In today’s society, showing remorse is a very important part of the prison sentencing system, at times affecting prison or probation time. The issue is that there is no concrete definition of the word in this context, and there is no evidence to suggest that being ‘remorseful’ has an effect on the rate of people reoffending. So, should remorse be taken into consideration when sentencing someone for a crime? Vikram Dodd investigates.